Plasmapheresis is a process of separating plasma from whole blood. The plasma-depleted blood is comprised principally of cellular components, e.g., red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets. Plasma is comprised largely of water, but also contains proteins and various other noncellular compounds, both organic and inorganic.
Continuous plasmapheresis is the process of continuously removing whole blood from a subject, separating plasma from the blood and returning the plasma-depleted blood to the subject in a continuous extracorporeal circuit.
Plasmapheresis is currently used to obtain plasma for various transfusion needs, e.g., preparation of fresh-frozen plasma, for subsequent fractionation to obtain specific proteins such as serum albumin, to produce cell culture media, and for disease therapies involving either the replacement of plasma or removal of specific disease-contributing factors from the plasma.
Plasmapheresis can be carried out by centrifugation or by filtration. Generally, in known filtration apparatus, whole blood is conducted in a laminar flow path across one surface, i.e., the blood side surface, of a microporous membrane with a positive transmembrane pressure difference. Useful microporous membranes have pores which substantially retain the cellular components of blood but allow plasma to pass through. Such pores are referred to herein as cell-retaining pores. Typically, cell-retaining pore diameters are 0.1 .mu.m to 1.0 .mu.m.
Various filtration devices for plasmapheresis are disclosed in the literature. U.S. Pat. No. 3,705,100 discloses a center-fed circular membrane having a spiral flow path. U.S. Pat. No. 4,212,742 discloses a device having divergent flow channels. German Patent No. 2,925,143 discloses a filtration apparatus having parallel blood flow paths on one side of a membrane and parallel plasma flow paths, which are perpendicular to the blood flow paths, on the opposite surface of the membrane. U.K. Patent Application No. 2,037,614 discloses a rectilinear double-membrane envelope in which the membranes are sealed together at the ends of the blood flow path. U.K. Patent Specification No. 1,555,389 discloses a circular, center-fed, double-membrane envelope in which the membranes are sealed around their peripheries. German Patent No. 2,653,875 discloses a circular, center-fed double-membrane device in which blood flows through slot-shaped filter chambers.
It is an object of this invention to provide a plasmapheresis filtration module which, if desired, can be used for plasmapheresis by reciprocatory pulsatile filtration. It is a further object to provide such a module which is easy-to-assemble and sterilizable and characterized by rigid flow paths and sealing of membranes without gaskets or adhesives.